The Cold Nights of Power
by C Jazz
Summary: In the fight to save the wizarding world, Hermione Granger works hard to uncover not only Horcruxes, but also the truth, in order to save the life of one individual, as well as the rest of the world. Eventual SSHG. Chapter 2 now up!
1. Chapter 1

**The Cold Nights of Power**

Chapter 1:

It was a cold evening and the chill was quickly seeping through my cloak, making Goosebumps breakout over the ill-warmed skin. Shivers were silkily rolling down my spine, though few had to do with the cold. This was the worst part –waiting for the excitement to start after days, even weeks of planning. But there was little I could do. I heard a quiet _pop_ on my left as Harry apparated beside me. Moments later Ron joined us, clutching to his chest three invisibility cloaks. We stood in silence a moment, watching the sun settle beneath the horizon. The last of the day was disappearing.

It wasn't until night had completely fallen that Ron turned to the two of us and held out his hands, an invisibility cloak in each. "They've been modified to repel simple jinxes as well as hide us." He said. "Fred and George helped me with them. I thought they'd be useful, just in case. Especially after last time…"

Ah, yes. Last time. Like we needed to be reminded. Harry looked at Ron with empty eyes, hiding the emotions he truly felt. Ron looked back with nearly the same look; around the edges you could see how much sadness and pain they were feeling. It had been hard on all of us, these past few months. Everything was a struggle for our lives and the safety of the rest of our world. But Harry especially…Harry had seen it all.

The last time was a freezing night – the coldest of the whole of October, really. But we had found one. We had found a Horcrux. It was hidden, of all the obvious places, in the graveyard holding Voldemort's father's remains. Burried, if you can believe it, inside of Tom's coffin. When we apparated on the spot we had no idea we were walking into a nest of Death Eaters. It just so happened that the night we had chosen to raid the grave was the same night that Voldemort had chosen to meet around the grave of his father.

Ironic, don't you think? As soon as the Death Eaters realized what was going on, we were in an all out battle. Luckily, we had derived all sorts of back-up plans to make sure we could call for help. I took it upon myself and alerted the Order. None of them knew why we were there, only that we needed their help. Trust me, it was very difficult to cover up for it afterwards. Awkward questions all around. It took ages to make them accept that we weren't going to tell them what was up.

But Harry still felt guilty for it. We had walked, unaware, into our worst nightmare. There was almost no way to get to the Horcrux without Voldemort figuring out what we were after. And in the midst of it all, it was a few well-aimed yet simple curses that led to the capture and torture of Charlie Weasley. Somehow, he had managed to escape, but not without having withstood a great deal of pain. He came back physically battered and frighteningly close to a mental breakdown. He had lost a lot of the original spunk and character he used to have, and had almost completely stopped talking.

And now here I was looking at the two men before, realizing just how much they had changed in all this; just how much we had all changed. It seemed everyone had that look. Everyone had the empty eyes. Everyone was afraid. Tonight, however, was not a night for fear. Tonight was a night for action.

"It won't be the same tonight." Confidence filled my voice and comfort softened it slightly. "We may not even meet resistance."

Harry looked up at me with doubt in his eyes. He was almost certain Voldemort had figured out what we were up to. I was inclined to agree with him, but I was not going to show him my own fears. We didn't need that now.

The three of us put the cloaks around our shoulders, and took one last glance at each other before nodding and putting on our hoods. Swiftly, silently, and under the cover of a dark, cold night, we slipped onto the grounds of the Riddle House to take back the thick, golden locket of Slytherin.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not, nor will I ever, own Harry Potter and am in no way benefitting financially for this piece of fiction. All rights belong to JK Rowling and her associates.**  
**

**The Cold Nights of Power**

_The three of us put the cloaks around our shoulders, and took one last glance at each other before nodding and putting on our hoods. Swiftly, silently, and under the cover of a dark, cold night, we slipped onto the grounds of the Riddle House to take back the thick, golden locket of Slytherin._

Chapter 2:

When we reached the door, I sensed Ron checking for wards. We had planned out the process of getting in, in case we ran into resistance. Ron would check for wards, and then remove them if he could. Though we weren't sure Ron was the best choice to remove the wards (for it took a great deal of concentration and an extensive knowledge in warding), once we thought about it more we came to the conclusion that Voldemort was just cruel enough to protect this muggle house with all sorts of anti-muggle wards, or wards that gave preference to purebloods. Therefore, Ron, being pureblooded, was our man. He would be the first to enter the house, which put him in the riskiest position. If the home were being guarded, Ron would have to be extremely careful not to be noticed upon entrance.

Harry would be next to jump into action. If we were alone, he would lead the way to the place we suspected it was being kept. If we weren't, he'd attempt to swiftly and silently take out all the Death Eaters he could before we were noticed. If we indeed weren't alone, I would be the one to swiftly contact the order. We had established a newer system, much like that of the DA so we could contact each other without much notice. We now used watches that would heat slightly when a message was sent, and the face would read the message. This made it easier to contact each other during battle and meant we could never be without our signaling devices.

I quickly ran through all this in my mind, waiting for Ron to send the message that he was finished with the wards. I felt Harry beside me. He was breathing deeply, almost as though he were asleep. He was closing his mind, storing his thoughts away, and preparing to ward it from the Dark Lord.

It made me uneasy. Sure, I expected some form of a fight, but I never thought that Voldemort himself would be there to greet us. Today we would know for sure whether Voldemort knew what we were up to. Today we would know exactly what we were up against.

Suddenly my wristwatch heated slightly. Ron was done checking the wards. Harry moved instinctively in front of me. I sensed Ron's movement in front of us. He was waiting for us to be completely silent, showing our readiness. It was a long moment as Ron eased the door open. It didn't creak and he opened it just wide enough for us to go through. I held my breath as he entered. My watch warmed again and I let my breath out. He was in.

Harry entered next. I felt him move in front of me and waited for his next signal. If we weren't alone, I would wait outside and call the Order before I even entered the fight. My watch warmed, and I glanced at it in the darkness. _All's fine._ I relaxed slightly and entered into a very dank kitchen.

We began to walk swiftly and silently through the house. We were trying to find a room that Harry had seen once in a dream. It was a small room at the end of a hall. The room where a muggle man had found an extremely weak Voldemort. The room where Voldemort had killed the man and created his final Horcrux. After much thought and a great deal of research we had discovered what we believed was the truth. First came the discovery that the R.A.B who had taken Slytherin's locket from it's original hiding place was Regulus A. Black, Sirius ill-fated brother who had formerly been a Death Eater. We had then proceeded to number twelve Grimmauld Place to see if Regulus had succeeded in destroying it. We didn't find the locket but we did find a journal of sorts documenting in great detail the last few days of Regulus' life. Though he never directly referred to a locket or a Horcrux, he indirectly discussed all of his trouble with tracking and finding something that he thought was very important. After getting the locket, Regulus had attempted to destroy it with all sorts of light and dark magic. He had researched thoroughly but all his attempts had failed.

Knowing the likelihood of him getting the right spell, Regulus had detailed his attempt to get help. He contacted a friend of his, someone he thought he could trust. This someone turned out to be none other than Lucius Malfoy. We are sure he killed Regulus as soon as he was told about the Horcrux and used the safe return of the locket as his step up into Voldemort's "inner circle."

After tracking the locket back into the hands of Voldemort, we then had the very harrowing task of figuring out where he hid it. Thinking back to Voldemort's life story, we realized the pure irony of it. Voldemort would hide the one possession left from his most valued, pureblooded ancestor in a muggle house. And not any muggle house, but the muggle house in which he completed his quest for immortality; the house in which he killed his muggle father; the house in which something that once belonged to Salazar Slytherin would be most out of place. Our guess was that he would also hide it in the room where he lived just prior to his reincarnation, if you could call it that. It only made sense to mark the place that he separated the seventh piece of his soul.

So that's where we were headed – a small room at the end of a hall. Harry also suspected it was upstairs. We hoped dearly that we were not wrong. If we did not find the locket in this room, we would search the house. But we didn't want to have to stay that long if we could avoid it. We wanted to be in and out as quickly as we could.

I was just turning a particularly sharp corner when I felt it. We weren't alone. Nanoseconds later my watch heated slightly. I didn't have to look at it to know what it read. In front of us was a large room with a giant staircase in the middle. Upon each step were two Death Eaters, leaving a path just large enough for a person to walk through in between them. Above the staircase were two landings, each leading off a different direction, each overlooking the entire room. Each of these held another gaggle of Death Eaters. And all of them appeared to be at the ready.

Immediately I contacted the Order, making sure the message read to enter quietly and make their way to the center of the house. I watched as Harry attempted to discretely stun the Death Eaters, holding my breath as each curse was fired. It wasn't until the sixth step that someone noticed.

It wasn't until the sixth step that all hell broke loose.

And so the battle began. Quickly we took off our hoods so we could fight without hitting each other. The Death Eaters seemed to growl above us when Harry removed his hood, and immediately all attention was on him. Shielding Harry, and ourselves we worked together for those first few moments to head off the curses. We worked as a well-practiced team to keep ourselves safe while the Order navigated the halls until they found us. I felt more than saw the first few Order members turn that sharp corner. Bill Weasley's scarred face was the first I saw, followed by the twins and Kingsley Shacklebolt. It was then, and only then, that Ron, Harry and I began to fight by singularly.

Harry swiftly ran up the stairs, dodging curses with reflexes honed by Quidditch. Ron was locked in a battle with a rather lumpy Death Eater who seemed to not be up to throwing Unforgivables. I began blocking curses coming from a variety of different Death Eaters before singling out my fight.

The battle progressed quickly and began to spread out. Death Eaters moved from the crowded staircase and into the rooms surrounding it. Successfully stunning the Death Eater I was fighting, I caught a glimpse of a black, Death Eater cloak whipping through a door in an eerily familiar way. Hoping I was right, I followed through the door after it. The room was full of Death Eaters and Order members but I quickly found the man I was looking for. Hunched in the shadows was none other than Severus Snape, betrayer of the Order, murderer of Dumbledore.

I quickly slipped on the hood of my invisibility cloak and pressed myself into the corner opposite him to observe. He had his wand out, but I don't think anyone had noticed him yet. He was not fighting anyone in particular, but appeared to be calculating whom to curse. I gripped my wand tightly beneath my cloak, waiting for him to make a move. A moment later a flash of silver light shot out of his wand in the direction of Tonks's fight with a round and balding Death Eater. I quickly sent a shielding charm at Tonks, only to find that there was no reason to. The curse hit the Death Eater squarely in the back in a way that could not have been an accident.

As the Death Eater slumped to the ground, Tonks spun around as though looking for the Order member who took out her Death Eater but was quickly attacked by another. I was looking at Snape again, this time completely puzzled. Had he really meant to do that? Was he really stunning Death Eaters for us? I watched, amazed and slightly amused, as he aimed his wand at Bellatrix Lestrange, skillfully lifting her up into the air with a _Levicorpus_. He looked slightly pleased with himself as Bill, who had been fighting with her, aimed another curse at her, hardly bothered by the sudden levitation of his sparring partner.

Silently I watched as Snape cursed almost every Death Eater in the room. Then, quite suddenly, he looked up at me, meeting my gaze with sharp, steely eyes. I jerked in surprise, displacing the hood of my cloak. Somewhere in those eyes he looked angry. Angry at the world. Angry at this battle. Angry at having to serve the Dark Lord once more. I felt bad for him. I felt bad for having to shun him and bad for having to push him back into the life he worked so hard to correct.

And feeling bad for Snape was the last thing I would feel that night, for quite suddenly and in a flash of light, I lost all thought, feeling, and consciousness.

A/N: Thanks to everyone who's reading this! It really makes me happy to see how many people have given this little story a chance. Though I was disappointed to see how few reviews I received, I understand that last chapter was short and rather dull. I hope you enjoyed this one much better! Review for me?


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